Other lighting problem on the 2015 GMC Sierra 2500
When other lighting problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 GMC Sierra 2500 report other lighting problem at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 500 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 86,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 100 miles at the tenth percentile to 30,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 30,437 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
92% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63 miles | 475 miles | 6,550 miles | 17,250 miles | 30,500 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $120–$1,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure, every year of the GMC Sierra 2500
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
While driving at night on rural highways, towing my fifth wheel trailer, in az, ca and or with no other light sources nearby the headlights were dimmer than those I am used to making wild animals and people along the road difficult to see. The instances when I noticed this were all in september 2015 . This morning my dealer, robideaux motors in coeur d'alene, id, checked out the problem and told me that the lights appeared the same as other similar models and they could not duplicate the issue (repair order #193940). I was not surprised as I have seen numerous similar reports on internet blogs and I even understand gm is being sued over the same issue (2013 and 2014 models) in a case in california.
The headlights on 2015 sierra 2500hd denali are safety hazards they do not illuminate far enough ahead of you at night to see road hazards in front of you at normal driving speeds, they are especially lacking on rural roads, where animals might be on the roadway. They barely illuminate (very dim and unreadable), the license plate on a vehicle in front of you traveling at regular night time distances, giving you very little reaction time to react in case of hazards. We have a new vehicle less than 3000 miles and find this vehicle very dangerous to drive at night or in poor lighting. The dealer told us there was nothing they could do, considering trying to find some type of after market lighting to add to the vehicle to aid in night time driving.
The headlights do not provide adequate lighting of the road which makes it very difficult to drive safely at night . I have tried to work through gmc they changed the bulbs to a different vendor but didn't help. Gmc now in the 2016 are using HID bulbs they also used a different lighting system in the 2014 . The local gmc dealer agrees that the lighting could lead to possible accident . The lumen of the bulbs are down around 1200 which is half of the normal lumens to provide adequate stopping or visual of the road. Please help us owners as this vehicle is very dangerous to drive after dark. *dt
Also reported on the 2015 GMC Sierra 2500
Other electrical problem
Fuel pump failure
Headlight failure or clouding
Other fuel system problem
Other powertrain problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other lighting problem happen on the 2015 GMC Sierra 2500?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 500 miles and a quarter after 15,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other lighting problem on the 2015 GMC Sierra 2500?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed